Mike's '82 Mk1 Golf GTI
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Eventual 20vt Conversion
I'll start with the history:
I was visiting family in Coalville, Leicestershire when my Auntie's fella mentioned that he had an old vw in the back of his barnyard that his nephew owned and had been sat there for numerous years without being touched. Immediately, my ears pinned up and I asked to have a look. Low and behold, under an old cover was the mk1 I own to this day. I asked him if he could get in touch with his nephew and see if he was interested in selling it, he was, and after a conversation discussing price, I managed to bag the old girl in March 2014 for £900 () - sold as seen. The car had no mot, ran a bit shoddily and was rough around the edges but after a little elbow grease I knew that it could come good. At this point I was 20 and had only a little knowledge compared to what I know now but I wanted to get stuck in anyway.
As the early golfs were my favourite cars, I checked the usual areas where there is trouble and it looked straight apart from the sills. I bought the car and got it home to the flat I shared with my other half and was absolutely chuffed.
The spec of the car was as follows:
1982 Mk1 Golf GTI in Diamond Silver
170k miles
1.8DX GTI Engine
Service history dating back to the 90s including mots.
The Golf has 7 previous owners, the guy explained to me that the car was sold to his friend in the noughties and was bought back from him for the same price when he was done, only with a few thousand miles more, so 2 of the owners were him and another was his friend. After reading through the block of history i also noticed that the car was bought originally by a soldier at first and then sold on from there. There is also some history that says it was driven in Germany for a while too.
I have attached the first pictures I took of it when I went to have a look below:
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Mike's '82 Mk1 Golf GTI
Good luck man..
Reg Kevin
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Last edit: by MikeBott93
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I sold the Corsa for more than I imagined:
I got the car insured with Adrian Flux on a classic policy and took it to get MOT'd straight away first thing in the morning on my birthday. An hour later, it failed.. miserably.
The sills were rotten, which I knew about, so I attempted to weld them up and it was pretty poor (had next to no welding experience at the time), I had my friend go over them to make it worthy enough to pass and sort out a few other little bits and then moved on to the next problem.
The indicators were blinking too quick, was just a relay that I changed.
The exhaust was blowing a lot, so I had the whole exhaust replaced with a close to standard, Borla one and replaced a driveshaft gaitor.
I also changed the alternator and cam belt.
It passed and I enjoyed getting used to driving an old car for a bit, I loved it.
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The next step was closing up that arch gap.. so I bought the cheapest coilovers I could find.. another regret.
Then was a new heavy duty battery to keep up with the new power output.
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I bought a new alternator because it was making noise and fitted a new horn, some new rear and front lights and a set of smoked indicators (I like the silver and black theme). Some pressed plates went on and I made a start on the coilovers which were a pain to fit, I had to angle grind the strut out as it was that rusted but was worth it! I hit another snag as I went to drive off and my wheel was hard against the coilover.. On went some 20mm spacers on the front and 25 on the rear. Was a nightmare getting the ride height right as it would either scrub on the tyre too much or look rubbish but I found the happy medium in the end..
The small parts pile and new rear lights on:
New headlights, these were a pain, I remember the wires all perishing away and having to buy new ones:
The angle grinding of old suspension:
The new component:
Bought new flat caps from America for the Schmidt's, the old stick-out ones were really loose for some reason:
The fitment:
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They were TA Technix mate with Febi top mounts, they were horrendous, the mrs has them on her mk1 now haharw@@dy29 said
What coilovers were they mate?
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figti said
Really good basement for your Plans..
Good luck man..
Reg Kevin
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Thanks mate, i'm about done now though! I'm yet to finish writing this up
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MikeBott93 said
They were TA Technix mate, they were horrendous, the mrs has them on her mk1 now haharw@@dy29 said
What coilovers were they mate?
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Oh dear! I need to replace mine so just looking at what to get! Car looks great by the way
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I was on the show and shine at Big Meet 2014, was a pretty poor show due to weather but was my first proper show and shine.
Cleaned and covered the night before:
Rolling into the Big Meet:
I'll never forget the drive home from this show, it was thrashing it down and I was on the M1 when my wipers suddenly decided to stop working..
Mk7 vs Mk1
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There are plenty more but I don't want to clog this up any further.
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Spent a day adjusting coilovers and tidying up with a couple of mates:
I joined a few local car groups in the next few months and met the east midlands dub foundation group. I was on the stand at GTI international (Santa Pod) for the mk1 oc:
You may notice I had the small splitter on these pictures as I had smashed the big one on a big speed bump and wanted to give the little one a try, I wasn't too keen but it did the job.
The end of the show season came and somebody offered me a decent price for my Schmidt's so I decided to let them go, as much as I regret it.
And on went some old bbs' I had lying around for the winter:
I wanted to do something over the 2014 winter so I decided to buy some tatty wheels with potential, RSL cults, they are 14" with a staggered fitment of 8J rears and 7J fronts and an offset of ET23.
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Steam cleaned and shampoo'd the seats/carpets and had a general tidy:
Bbs tyres were a little bold so on went the Tarantulas again:
And this was when the significant other purchased a mk1! Hers started as just a shell with many parts:
Click here for a link to her thread.
After a few more hundred cleans/polishes/waxes, I decided that I needed to tidy up a few bits and bobs paint-wise. (And got my duck bill splitter back!)
The roof was in very poor condition due to it being a sunroof model, I stripped the headlining back (bought new lining too) to try and clear the blocked drainage pipes running down the A pillars.
They were quite bad on inspection but after an hour or so I managed to clear them but the inside of the sunroof was all cracked and had rust. The roof had bubbles all over it:
I dropped the mk1 off with a friend to let him see what he could do with the bad paint.
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After he had sprayed her, I polished the car up and it looked magnificent.
I'll let the paint speak for itself..
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Unfortunately not, only helped with the prep. A friend sprayed it for me, he has painted cars for years and did a really good job, especially on a silver car as I know they're notorious for being a pain.figti said
Did You make the paintjob byself?
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Reg Kevin
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The golfs home throughout 2015 when myself and the better half moved house:
Was a little tight:
Anyway, back to work, polished the RSL's:
Little mark on the rim that I thought may need a bit of welding but it polished down well:
And had them painted in gloss black:
New hardware:
Tapped them out carefully:
Tapped hole:
Fitted tyres and started putting bolts in:
One down:
Got VERY burnt in the process, was around May 2015, sudden heatwave:
Ah well, it healed, and the Mk1 looked amazing:
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